Optimizing

You've built your Route and scheduled your Stops--it's time to Optimize.

Tap Get Route to finalize your Route settings and get going.

Warrior Tip: Happy with the Defaults? Just tap Optimize at the bottom of the next screen and get going. Want to learn more about the Settings options? Keep reading!

Once you Optimize, RoadWarrior gathers your information and uses our unique algorithm to create the best Route for you.

Your Route Summary should pop up, which includes the travel time, total time (includes your stopover time at each Stop), and travel distance of the Route.

We also estimate how much time you saved by comparing to a general route that looks similar to manual routing.

Route Settings

Prior to Optimizing, you'll see a lot of options for adjusting your Route in the Get Route menu.We'll walk you through those below.

Round Trip - if you want to start and end in the same location, use round trip--the green start flag will appear with a checkerboard background. One way trips will indicate the start point with a solid green flag.

Optimize Mode - optimize your route for either the fastest time or shortest distance

Travel Mode - set your transportation type: Driving, Biking or Walking. RoadWarrior will plan your Route to work best with how you're getting around.

Avoids - avoid tolls, highways or ferries

Planned Time - set a specific start and/or end time, or choose dynamic (your start time will become the time of optimization)

Departure Point - your current location is set as your default starting point (dynamic mode). To start from another location, make the start "fixed"

Warrior Tip: update your fixed start point by using the Search tool to find an address, or by long-pressing on your map. Tap "update start" and you'll be all set!

Manual Reordering

If you have individual preferences, knowledge, or constraints, you can manually reorder your stops after Optimizing.

Tap Get Route, then select the overflow button in the upper right corner to activate Manual Reorder mode. You can reorder Stops by tapping the grab bar (three lines) on the side of each Stop.

You can also enter this mode by just pressing on the grab bar to the right of a Stop and dragging it to a new position in the list.

When you manually reorder an optimized Route, you override the RoadWarrior fastest-Route algorithm--so tap Calculate at the bottom of the screen to finalize your Route if you wish to retain your changes (rather than tapping Optimize (which will re-run the algorithm and reorder your Stops).

We recommend using RoadWarrior's Time Window Tools and Drop Stop Feature to avoid manually re-ordering your Stops, so you can take full advantage of RoadWarrior's Optimization algorithm.

FAQ

Road Warrior didn't take me to the next closest stop, won't that make my route longer?

One way to think about Road Warrior is to imagine how a chess master plays their game--always a few steps ahead of their opponent, keeping the whole game in perspective--not just the next move. Road Warrior imagines your Route as a whole, and places each piece of the puzzle for you to win it all.

Sometimes RoadWarrior seems counterintuitive, because it is! Our brains often rely on a method called "nearest neighbor" to get from place to place--it makes sense for us to head out to the closest nearby Stop, then the next closest, and so on, until we are done.

The RoadWarrior method looks at your route as a complete unit, instead of a step-by-step plan, which can often save more time than zigzagging from one closest Stop to the next.

Why does RoadWarrior only allow PRO users to optimize up to 120 stops?

Our unique algorithm works best with 120 stops, and we want the app to work its best for you--the limit keeps speeds high and costs low for our users.

What is a Route violation?

Route violations occur when you input an unreachable Stop (ex. you need to drive across an ocean).

An unreachable Stop can also occur when you only type in the city, state, or country of the stop--this drops the pin in the middle of the region, which could be in the middle of a field or some other place unreachable by roads.

Unreachable Stops can also occur when you input availability for a Stop, and your current settings will not allow you to get to that Stop in the proper time. For example, if you have Stop that you need to be at until 11am and then need to be at another stop 60 miles away by 11:30am, the situation is infeasible.

What is a inactive stop?

A inactive Stop is any unavailable/unreachable Stop (see above), and also any Stop that has been checked into. These stops will be excluded from your Route after you re-optimize.

How can drop stops, first stops, and final stops constrain my route?

Drop stops, first stops, and final stops constrain the route by forcing the algorithm to put them in a certain place in your route order. This does not let the algorithm order the route entirely according to the fastest time.